Has Man a Future?: Dialogues with the Last Confucian

by Liang Shuming, Shu Ming Liang, Guy S. Alitto

Liang Shu-ming (October 18, 1893 – June 23, 1988), was a legendary philosopher, teacher, and leader in the Rural Reconstruction Movement in the late Qing Dynasty and early Republican eras of Chinese history. Liang was also one of the early representatives of modern Neo-Confucianism. Guy S. Alitto, associate Professor in the Department of East Asian Languages and Civilizations (EALC) at The University of Chicago, is author of, among other things, The Last Liang Shu-ming and the Chinese Dilemma of Modernity, and is one of the most active and influential Sinologists in America. In 1980 and again in 1984, at Liang Shu-ming’s invitation, he conducted a series of interviews with Liang in Liang's Beijing home. This book of dialogues between the American sinologist and “The Last Confucian”, Liang Shu-ming, gives a chronological account of the conversations that took place in Beijing in 1980. In these conversations, they discussed the cultural characteristics of Confucianism, Buddhism, Daoism, and their representative figures, and reviewed the important activities of Mr. Liang’s life, along with Liang’s reflection on his contact with many famous people in the cultural and political realms – Li Dazhao, Chen Duxiu, Mao Zedong, Zhou Enlai, Chiang Kai-shek, Kang Youwei, Hu Shi, etc. Rich in content, these conversations serve as important reference material for understanding and studying Mr. Liang Shuming’s thoughts and activities as well as the social and historical events of modern China.

Genres: China, Philosophy

263 pages, Paperback

First published March 2, 2013

Reviews

[Kaidi Pan · Rating 4 out of 5]

A very smooth read. But one can literally see the gloomy sociopolitical atmosphere in the background.

[Patrick · Rating 2 out of 5]

A revealing series of conversations that did more to help me understand the political context of China between 1912 and the Cultural Revolution than "Neo-Confucianism" as a philosophy, which was more my interest coming into the book. It might have been helped if Alitto was a better interviewer, but unfortunately I found him fairly pedantic and unwilling to pursue the really interesting questions throughout. Still, there are great tidbits throughout, including anecdotes about some of the biggest names in 20th century China (Liang Qichao, Zhou Enlai, and Mao himself all feature), and the few sections where Liang goes into real detail about his personal philosophy are always compelling. I did come away from this thinking that Liang was a genuinely great man, if not quite the standout figure that Alitto clearly thinks of him as being. On the other hand, Alitto accidentally gave us a good read on the challenge of a historian approaching the real individual behind their study.

[Yijun · Rating 5 out of 5]

Chinese confucianism thinks the most important is human, we think human can change many things, as a human, we may make mistakes, so the most important is to behave well and correct the mistakes.

Indian Buddhism denys the life.Life is a circle and it will be end. The life is like the illusion, it is dated back to the acient time, and it could be again popular in the future time.

[Junyi Yang · Rating 3 out of 5]

民国的人与事总是让人读来有种豁达感。题目有点标题党。

[Ray Mo]

很黑色的是，书名为其父投河自尽前三天问儿子的话。提出了全球学者的内心疑问。知道了康有为抢经书，占画不还的黑历史，还有金岳霖是大学不敢轻易染指挂科的形式逻辑作者，幽默怼胡适的段子。阅读顺序应该是先看具体作品，这个对话集作为补充拾遗材料。虽说穷则思变，82岁老女人当政委炮灰的时代，能有多少人性。

[bⒶrtleby · Rating 3 out of 5]

因江老师的推荐而读的。感觉槽点很多，提问者的脑袋也很浆糊。梁的乐观部分来源于对未来的误判，如今已经把后四十年纳入视域的我们，恐怕很难从中获得慰藉